(upbeat rock music) - Hello, I am your host, AShira Nelson, and this is "Forum 360" where we have a global outlook from a local view.

My guest today is Justin Carter.

Justin is a Business and Mindset Coach.

Justin helped service-based businesses build six figure businesses online.

Hello, Justin.

- What's going on?

How are you doing?

- How are you?

- I'm good, I'm good, can't complain.

How are you?

- I'm doing well.

Glad to have you here.

It's been a while since I seen you.

- I know.

Honor's mine, honor's mine.

- Yes, I'm excited.

Excited to jump into all things business, learn more about the dynamics of your business 'cause it's a unique one, guys.

It really is.

So, let's start by you telling me a little bit about yourself.

- Yeah, yeah, So Justin, born and raised in the Akron, Ohio area.

- [AShira] Okay.

- So local time, local kid.

Went to school through kind of Akron public schools.

- [AShira] Okay.

- Played football all my life, so that was kind of my thing, and went and played at Kent State university, which is where I went to college.

And then graduated there, got married, and moved to California.

So I kind of bounced around a bit.

So I moved to California and then I was there for about three or four years for professional reasons.

And then I lived in Colorado for three years.

- [AShira] Wow.

- And then I've been back on Ohio for probably, for three years now, so.

- That's awesome.

- Yeah.

- Nice, nice.

So you went to school like Kent, and then once you graduated, you went to Colorado, professional reasons, like for your career?

- Yeah, yeah.

So I first went to California and that was, I kind of, I went to school for entrepreneurship actually.

So my degree, interesting enough.

- Your degree is in entrepreneurship?

- Is in entrepreneurship, yeah.

- Tell me a little bit about that because I am on a couple boards.

I'm a board member and we are exploring that.

A lot of incoming freshmen want to major in entrepreneurship, so kind of what allowed you or kind of inspired you to select that major?

- So I first started off with computer technology.

- Okay.

- So I've always been somebody that's been into tech.

- [AShira] Yes.

- But after I did a lot of the classes and started really understanding the profession, I realized that I wasn't the kind of person that'd be behind the desk all day, turning screws on servers and computers and all that kind of stuff.

And I knew I was someone that always had ideas and I knew I was more business minded, but I didn't want to be like an accountant or I didn't want to be a lawyer, an attorney or something like that.

And we had an entrepreneurship program there.

And it was amazing because essentially, your coursework was you were building a business with an entrepreneur resident.

So they would have a series of entrepreneurs that were almost like on the board of the school.

And you would be able to work with them throughout your senior year to build your business.

They helped you with funding, with getting customers.

They helped you build all the backing of your business, all that kind of stuff.

So before I graduated college, I really understood how to run business.

And so that helped me as I, you know, right after college, I went into sales.

And the piece that helped me be really successful in sales is I really understood the inner workings of business.

I wasn't just selling a widget, but I knew procurement, I knew finance, I knew the legal department, I knew product design.

I knew a lot of the pieces that a business has.

So that really helped me not in just creating and running my own business, but also when it came to my profession and career in sales.

- So how did you become a business coach as opposed to just like, not just, but an entrepreneur?

- Yeah, yeah.

So my coaching business is actually my third business.

- [AShira] Wow.

- So the first business that I started was at Kent State and it was called JiT Crew Solutions, pretty interesting business, but I was doing consulting.

And this was like when iPads had first came out.

So we were going and helping people integrate iPads into their businesses, using square stores, setting up their QuickBooks online.

This was like in 2013.

- I feel like a lot of businesses need that now.

- Yeah, they still do, right?

Might need to add that back.

So after that then, I went into corporate sales for a while and then I went into real estate.

And I'm still passively doing that, but I was doing real estate full time, fix and flip rental properties, buying holds, wholesaling, all that kind of stuff.

And then really, I started to realize that my skill set wasn't necessarily just in the one business, but a lot of people would ask me business advice and things like that.

And I found myself being advisors to many people.

And I was like, what if I actually created something where I intentionally help people instead of being someone on the phone in case they needed anything?

And that's kind of what inspired me to start to actually be intentional about coaching, is my experience there.

- So what would you say your coaching style is?

- Man.

So, this is kind of something I tell my clients is I'm really someone who pushes my clients beyond like comfort to an extreme degree.

- [AShira] Okay.

- So people, my clients, they really work with me when they need to be pushed beyond their current limitations.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And so I'm not the person that's gonna be very passive.

Well, a lot of my clients are like, all right, they have to tell me, okay, like, this is enough.

Like, I'm pushed too far.

So I really help in pushing not from a, you know, just like a grinding mentality, but really pushing them because often, the best in the things, our creativity and our innovation is really on the outside of our comfort zone.

And so my goal is really pushing them to that place.

I always tell my clients that if you're not living on the edge of your comfort zone, you're taking up too much space.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And so I'm helping them all live on the edge.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- So what is the difference between business coaching and mindset coaching?

- You know, I think all coaching has some aspect of mindset.

- Okay.

- To me, that's what it all boils down to is mindset.

So really, the difference is is business is mindset coaching, but it also have more business support with it.

So I get into the finances, I get into their numbers, we build KPIs, we're tracking trends and metrics, and we're tracking their funnel.

I don't wanna get too technical, but a lot of the sales terms around your paper click, and your price to acquire a customer, and all that kind of stuff.

So not only is it helping them really have the belief necessary to run their business and take it to the next level, but also helping them understand how the metrics talk about their business.

- Wow, okay.

- Businesses, you know, they live on a balance sheet, they live on an income statement.

- [AShira] Absolutely.

CPA here.

- Yeah, exactly.

They live on a P&L statement.

- Yes.

- And many entrepreneurs, they don't look at their business that way.

- Absolutely, make decisions without even ever considering.

- Yeah.

They don't have someone running their books.

Most of 'em don't, like most starting entrepreneurs, that's kind of the last thing they think of is, hey, maybe I need to actually get somebody to help me with managing the books, and my taxes and all that kind of stuff.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- So when you say mindset, tell me about the mindset aspect of your business.

- Yeah, it's huge.

So, I would say that's like 90% of my coaching is all around mindset.

So really, especially from an entrepreneur standpoint, a lot of what we do in the world is on the opposite side when it comes to the life that we're building and the business that we're building is on the opposite side of our beliefs.

And so our belief system typically drives our results.

How you believe about a thing is often how you produce and how you conceive something, how you turn something from intellectual property into something tangible.

- Okay.

- And so often, if someone is struggling with their business, they're struggling with something in their mindset, meaning, and I always say this to a lot of my clients.

Is there someone that had maybe less circumstances that were able to do better than you currently are?

- [AShira] Mm.

- And if that proves to be true, then there is a way to actually accomplish what you want to accomplish.

We just don't know or you're not yet the person you need to be to actually attract that kind of thing.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And so my mindset style is really around helping clients attract the kind of life that they want.

I'm kind of opposite of grinding and always hustling.

Though that's necessary, especially in pockets, but I believe that whatever you want is on the other side of your belief and who you become.

and what you have is based on the person you've become and how you've attracted that kind of life, whatever it is.

- I like that, I like that.

I was very curious about that because I always believe that a person's mindset is everything.

- [Justin] It is, yeah.

- Can you describe how you would perceive or how you would want a entrepreneur mindset to be?

- So I think the first part is, the first step is really to go through the process of elimination.

- Okay.

- And so often, when we're trying to be something new or do something new, we add on without subtracting.

So the first step that I often encourage entrepreneurs to do is first look at their current life.

And before they add anything on, they have to begin to first think what are the things that I'm doing that actually aren't presenting results for me?

What isn't creating results?

- Okay.

- And first, simplifying their life.

Often, it's kind of the Pareto principle that, you know, the 80/20 principle that 20% of my actions will substantiate 80% of my results.

And so the first step is what are the actual 20% of actions that actually are taking that are moving the needle.

I call it the NMA, the needle moving activity.

What's your NMA in your life?

So that's the first step.

The second step is really around like believing and having belief in the thing that you want to create, and how important that is, and really getting the ability to journal.

I'm heavily into journaling.

And often, our conscious mind presents an aspect of us.

And that's kind of that piece that we go out to the world in, and that's the piece that surface, but your fears, and your concerns, and your anxiety, and all that kind of stuff, that's like a couple tiers lower than that.

And so when you journal, we really get down to the basis of, hey, what's actually holding you back?

What's stopping you from creating that thing?

Sometimes, it could be things with childhood, or it could be things with what you've seen in your environment, or what someone told you.

And so I would say that piece, but then ultimately, it comes down to the third and final step is really what is the kind of person that would attract and be the life that you want?

So it's really identity.

What does a business owner do?

Where does a business owner go?

How does a business owner think about their finances?

How do business owners treat people?

And especially new entrepreneurs, it's getting to that point and realizing, you know what, I am a business owner, and business owners have different standards, different values.

- [AShira] Absolutely.

- They look at their time differently, they manage their time differently, and really taking on that identity.

And those are kind of some of the first steps that I would push someone towards.

- Okay.

So what are some of the benefits of working with a coach?

- Yeah, so I would say coaching, and I'll first say that it's not for everybody.

- Okay.

Oh, that's a good point.

- Yeah, I think it's not for everybody.

I think that coaching is a evolutionary thing that especially for the right coaches, because the right coaches are an investment.

They are a pretty substantial investment.

- [AShira] Definitely.

- And so often, most people can coach themselves and get coaches by reading books, or going to webinars, or just self-educating and finding their deficiencies and getting educated there.

- I would say when you're ready for a coach is when you have a specific outcome that you'd like to produce and you are able to find someone that has produced that kind of result.

And now, you're going to that coach for specific advice, specific guidance on a key area.

And so to me, if you're that person, if you're somebody that says, hey, I know exactly where I'm trying to go and I just don't know how to get there, or, 'cause you're gonna, here's the piece to it is you're gonna pay for, everybody pays for coaching.

They either pay for it in time or in money.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And so if you don't have a coach and you're trying to get to a certain place, you're just gonna pay for it in your time.

You'll probably get there eventually, but it might take you three years, it might take you five years.

Or you can pay for it with your money.

And at that point, my main goal with my clients is to shrink their time to success.

- Yes.

- So if it was gonna take them three to five years, I'll try to do it in a year or two and we really set intention because the goal is really to bring in expertise that you didn't have, therefore, shortcuts of ways to scale success, build out teams, all that kind of stuff that most people just try randomly on their own.

And so I think having a coach is extremely important, but it's, again, I don't want to paint it to say it's for everybody 'cause many people realize the real value in a coach, you have to show that you're somebody that's been able to help yourself.

- And being someone who's self-sufficient, and said, hey, I've done all of this and I've got myself to this point.

Okay, now, I'm ready to bring on a coach and take me to the next point.

So, yeah.

- Okay.

So what are your key values as a coach?

- Yeah.

So, one of the biggest is alignment.

I think alignment is extremely important and that's why I was talking a little bit about attraction.

And so to me, my main goal is helping, not just me living myself as an example, as a personal example of what alignment looks like, but also helping my clients understand how to be aligned with the kind of life that they want.

You know, it can be, especially in today's day and age, everyone's life can be looked to be glorious or looked to be desired.

- Absolutely.

- But it might not be something that's aligned to you.

You know, you might find that entrepreneurship actually isn't your thing and you're just trying to build a business 'cause it's what all the cool kids are doing.

But you know, 10 years ago, entrepreneurship was a term you would give the guy that was around the neighborhood that didn't have a job or didn't have a way of making money.

Oh, he's just an entrepreneur, right?

So the first thing is making sure that it's aligned because trends are gonna come and go, cultural aspects of things will come and go, but really making sure that you are taking value of what you've got and the gifts that are inside of you is important.

So I think alignment is one of my core values.

The other core value that I have is really what it is to, like, to me, I believe that that this world is a better place when entrepreneurship is thriving.

To me, entrepreneurs are some of the most selfless people because a lot of entrepreneurs, they could trade a 9:00 to 5:00 where they're working 40 hours a week for a 24 by seven, and they make often less or half the amount that they could if they went and got a job.

- [AShira] Absolutely.

- But there's a passion and belief that they've got that they can really help make this world a better place.

If it's a different product, or a service, or some kind of new invention, right, they really wanna make this world a better place and move the world forward.

And so I believe when entrepreneurs are thriving, our world is thriving, that there's no problem that someone doesn't have the capacity to solve, but often, it's stuck inside their head, or it's hidden behind their belief, or it's hidden behind the things that they've seen and not having an example.

- Very great point.

- Yeah.

So those are really from a value standpoint is I just believe that the entrepreneurship and really just the ability to create is core to our human existence.

I believe humans are the best creators in the world.

And so it's really like massaging those principles within my clients and helping them see that they too have more than just a responsibility of building a business and making money.

But it's your business is actually gonna make the world a better place.

You could say something that inspires someone to actually have a reason to live on, right?

A message that you say or your success story could be the reason why somebody says, you know what, I don't have to stay stuck here, or I don't have to live the kind of life that I'm in.

Actually, if Joe can do it, I can do it, right?

And it's really knowing that often, our impact, it's hard to find an algorithm that can really measure our true impact.

And yeah, so those are really important for me.

- So my guest today is Justin Carter.

He's here to discuss the benefits of working with a coach.

And remember, I am your host, AShira Nelson, and this is "Forum 360."

Okay, so how do you get your clients out of their comfort zone 'cause you me mentioned comfort zone.

And I always think, I try to operate outside of it a little bit, but it's hard.

So how do you get clients out of their comfort zone?

- So we get a little unorthodox.

- [AShira] Okay.

- So a part of it is, as I say, you've got these two voices that are always wrestling inside your head.

You've got the voice that wants you to be safe and a part of it is a protective mechanism.

It is a mechanism that is supposed to keep you safe.

To kinda go deep here, the human brain, its goal is to look for fears.

Its main goal is to find things that could potentially harm you.

And so we don't have a lot of those primitive fears anymore, meaning like, you know, there's not a lion that's gonna jump outta a bush and eat you in most of the cases.

And people do have fear these days, but because your brain isn't finding those, it's gonna look for anything that it can find.

And so for some people, posting and being transparent on social media can feel like a lion is coming to eat them.

And it creates that kind of fear.

That fear feels similar.

And so one of the things we have to do is first, first help you identify what that voice sounds like.

- And so what I do is I push my clients into spaces that allows them to very clearly navigate the sound of that voice.

So we do things like, I'll have them take cold showers.

- Okay.

- Which that, you know, and these things are very uncomfortable.

They're not gonna kill you, but they're just very uncomfortable.

And so for them, they really, okay, that's what that voice sounds like.

Or they'll do cold plunges where it's like a cold, you know, they take a plunge in a bath and it's ice, like an ice bath.

Or determining what are their true fears and asking them to actually do those things.

So first step is okay, do we actually know the difference between the two voices?

So that's the first thing.

And so then, you begin to build up the strength and the callous on being able to actually go and triumph over that voice 'cause you realize that it's not going anywhere.

It is a defense mechanism.

It is to help you, but the best thing you can do is identify that you know what the voice is versus concern and all the other stuff.

And then also setting the standard and suppressing that voice so much that it realizes like, oh, shoot, I have no power over this person anymore.

- Okay.

- And so I do it in a, like, in a first a natural way.

And then we continue to move the goalpost when it comes to what they're afraid of, right?

And often, our success is right on the opposite side of the thing that we're afraid of, and helping them really get clear, and build the courage to actually do that thing.

- So how do you evaluate a client's progress within your coaching program?

- Yeah, so I would say, and it's actually interesting 'cause most of them have these evaluators, especially from a mindset standpoint that naturally happen that I don't have to put a metric behind.

- Oh.

- So life just happens.

- 'Cause you can feel when the mindset is shifting.

- Life just happens.

- Absolutely.

- You know, a family member will pass away, or a really close loved one would get sick, or somebody will lose their job.

And they're like, man, I remember when life, this would've taken me out, and I'm at peace.

And so often from a mindset standpoint, life does the pruning and does the real like qualifying like, hey, are you somewhere different now?

Like, do you process this level of pain or things that are coming to get you at a different level?

So I would say for mindset, it's more so life doing that, but also helping them really get clear on purpose and identifying what is firing them up and lighting them up.

- [AShira] Mm.

- For my mindset clients, I really want to make sure that they stay doing things that fire them up.

Most people live unfired lives.

They just go throughout the mundaneness of life, and don't actually do things that make them excited and get them fired up, and actually allow them to really want to do better.

From a business standpoint, we're checking the actual metrics.

We're checking what is our sales month over month, quarter over quarter?

What is our effectiveness?

How have we been able to grow following, or grow reach, or grow traction in some way?

So business wise, it's a little bit easier 'cause we can track a lot of the fundamental numbers.

You know, money in the funnel, all that kind of stuff.

But mindset, life does a lot of the pruning for us.

- Okay.

So you have a program and a podcast called "The Pivot."

- Yeah.

- So tell me about, because I know how to define it.

So how do you use that word to kind of promote or honestly build a whole brand?

- Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, so for me, kind of the statement that I always say on the podcast is that life is all about the pivots, and those who decide to make the pivots decide to become successful.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And so really, when I started to inventory my life was anytime that I had some level of like success or some level of quantum leap, like I may have jumped to a different tax bracket, or I may have doubled my income, or something like that, it was right on the opposite side of me making some kind of pivot.

- Okay.

- It was me moving to a different city, or me taking a new career path, or me changing a major, or me trying a different target market.

And right when I made those pivots, I seen abundance that came out of those pivots.

And so not only was it just like transactional stuff that happened in my life, but it was also realizing that the pivot also happens first mentally, and that you can make life.

Life is all about how you can adjust and the adjustments that you make.

And I think often, people can feel that life comes to them and it's almost the cards that they're dealt, but you can make the decision like right now to be a completely different person, to think different thoughts, and to do different things.

It's all at the mindset level.

- Absolutely.

- But if you're not prepared and don't know that it actually just takes the pivot, it takes the adjustment, then you could just try to mosey around to try to figure it out.

And so it's being comfortable with saying, hey, it's okay to make the adjustments, that no one is actually gonna look down on you because one day, you said this is what you're gonna be, and then the next day, you said I'm gonna be somebody completely different.

That is okay and a part of the human experience.

And my goal with the podcast is just really helping people and my brand is really helping people make those adjustments, whatever they are and whatever they look like.

- So how do you push through, you know, dealing with a client, they can feel the adjustments happening, but kind of pushing back on you?

How do you deal with that as a coach?

- Yeah.

A lot of it is journaling.

- Okay.

- So I help them process through a lot of that in journaling.

- Oh, okay.

- Because often, you know, and I kind of consider like dropping the rope.

So we could be having a very hard conversation and our conversations that I have with my clients are very question based.

So I'm often saying very little statements.

I'm typically having conversations through questioning.

- [AShira] Okay.

- And there could be a block.

There could be a point where it's just like, we're just not getting through in this point.

And so now, then I take them to journaling.

And journaling is, right, it's with themselves, but also, I put a time limit on or a time minimum on it.

So for my clients, if there's a journaling question, they can't journal for anything less than 10 minutes.

- Okay.

- They have to be journaling, pen writing for at minimum 10 minutes because that's when the good.

Like, the first.

It's kind of like, if you said, hey, how are you doing?

I'm like, I'm good, how are you?

That's my natural response.

But if you said, Hey, how are you really?

- Yeah.

- Then I'll go to like the real.

And maybe not even, I'll go to a better answer, but if you said, I get that, but like for real, Justin?

I'm like, like, let me give you what I really feel.

- Yeah.

- And that's what happens in journaling is the first couple of minutes, it's very surface level, and then it starts to get better, and then it really gets to the good stuff.

And it's allowing someone to build their own habits to course correct themselves because I don't want them to be dependent on me, but dependent on their ability to course correct themselves.

- Okay, okay.

So I know you have the free Masterclass.

- Yeah.

- So tell us a little bit about that and what do entrepreneurs usually leave with knowing?

What is that like concept you know you're gonna get outta this Masterclass?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So in the Masterclass, essentially what I do is I scaled a six figure business in under 90 days.

- Okay.

- And so I pretty much put that business under the microscope and I give them all the tools and all the things that I found to be successful and that served me as I built that business in under 90 days.

So I break down everything that I did on social media, what my prospecting strategy was, what my content strategy was.

- I'm gonna have to take that class.

- Yeah, it's really good, it's really good.

How to like brokepreneur versus an entrepreneur.

I dive into all of that stuff, how to build out a team, 'cause I, again, I did that while I was working a job.

- [AShira] Okay.

- So it was really just kind of creating that business as a case study to say like, how in the heck did I do this?

And then I broke it all down.

And that was hard because sometimes, it is hard to determine what you did 'cause you just naturally do it.

- Right.

- And so I had to almost get like introspective and say, okay, what actually worked?

What was the things that created results?

And that's what I show the people and walk through in that Masterclass.

- So how can someone learn more about your coaching program?

- Yeah, so I'm primarily on social.

- What social media platforms?

- Yeah, so Instagram is probably the most common one and the one I spend the most time on.

- And what's your name on there?

- So it's _JustinCarter.

- Okay.

- On Instagram.

- And that's the best way you can find-- - Best way, okay.

I did see the link in your bio is how I got to the Masterclass.

- Yes.

- I just learned more about all of your offerings, so I definitely can agree that that is a great place too.

- Yeah, it's all there.

- Yeah, to learn everything.

- Okay, so one final question.

I like to ask all of my guests.

I can't wait to know what you're gonna say, but, so what would you like to be remembered for?

- Yeah, so for me, it's really, I wanna be known for what I gave and not what I accumulated.

- Okay.

- And so I want my legacy to be around really helping people discover their uncommon.

- Okay.

- That's kind of my tagline is help you discover what your uncommon thing is.

What do you do that no one else can do?

'Cause I believe everybody has kind of a superpower, a unique advantage, but most people don't know what it is, and just helping people uncover that.

- So is that helping people define that, tap into that?

- All of it, yeah.

Define it, tap into it, and really leverage it.

And at the end, hopefully monetize it.

- I like that, I like that.

Thank you, Justin.

- Pleasure.

- This is "Forum 360" where we have a global outlook from a local view.

I am your host, Ashira Nelson, and Justin just dived into how he helps service-based entrepreneurs build that six figure online business.

Again, thank you guys for joining and I'll see you guys again soon.

- [Narrator] "Forum 360" is brought to you by: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, the Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and "Forum 360" supporters.